Ducks,chickens and other ill-advised decisions.

We now have chickens and a second beehive. We're lucky to have the Green Guerrillas  just two doors down from us (and bordering our back fence), so we got some pork from them. We know the pigs in the adjoining property are treated truly well, and slaughtered quickly and professionally. So anyway, back to the chickens. In addition to some pork, Akim was selling 19week laying hens, and one thing led to another....

I was pretty keen on getting ducks only. But I'm also pretty keen on using our property to the best of our ability, as quickly as possible given the pressing need for land even out here in the southern-most tip of Cape Town. I can't physically manage the number of fruit trees and vegetables we'd need to use the property to its full capacity. The ducks are going to take a while to lay, as they lay later. So, chickens. A second swarm of bees inhabited our second hive, through no effort on our part. Despite trying to be sensitive to the limitations of our time and energy, we find ourselves with an awfully long to-do list. More things to think about than we have time. So we're trying to decide which balls to drop. Which is to say, some balls will drop in favour of sanity, and hopefully they won't be too important.

worms, lots of them. Our worm farm is pretty huge, but now that we have ducks and chickens we don't have as much to feed them. Eli loves picking out the soldier fly larvae to feed the worms, and getting the worms out before we use the compost.

Guinea pigs-- the barrier (under our table) is only a few cm high, but they don't hop out. They're a little bit timid.

Sack race.

A few chameleons, here and there. 

Seaweed for the ducks and the trees..

By mistake Hana's first food was a pear.

so many mice. 

Eug said he was going for mafia but noone would stand still and look serious.

proteas in bloom on our property.

chicken house. For extra cred (and, like, trying to do it without any money), Eug built it from the leftover wood that even the people who took our wooden cottages left behind. 

surrounded the verandah with pots and tyres to try to stop the ducks from pooping in our house..

Boschvelder hens. A good dual purpose free-ranging bird for South Africa. But, stuck in their pen for the week before being allowed to free-range, they are not my favourite. they're like feathered mini dinosaurs. 

Yeah. Muscovies are awesome.